Have
you ever walked around in a store with shelves filled with expensive
fine china and glass? You probably were extremely careful because
you didn't want to break anything fragile. Just like a store that
sells china, some ecosystems are fragile. An ecosystem is a community
of organisms and their physical environment. They work together as
a unit. When one part of an ecosystem is changed or damaged, the rest
of the ecosystem is also changed or damaged.

When humans interact
with ecosystems, bad results can happen, especially in fragile places.
We have the potential to cause a lot of problems (and break a lot
of glass!). When we build homes or businesses, we impact the ecosystems
in that area by removing plants, displacing animals, and changing
the watershed. Ecosystems pay the price when humans make poor decisions
while developing or working in areas. Biodiversity, the mix of plants
and animals, is at risk. Water quality is jeopardized. Soil erodes.

We all want more jobs,
more money, and more places to shop and eat. So, how can we balance
the need for economic development with the need to sustain the fragile
ecosystems we build in? How can we walk around the store filled
with glass without knocking all of the shelves over?

An Example:
FarmsAn
example of healthy economic development within a working landscape
might be a farm. Working the land provides economic support to the
farming family. Farmers support and sustain the health of the land
when they make ecologically thoughtful decisions. If the scales
start to tilt to productivity rather than conservation, the farm
can be an unhealthy example of economic development within a working
landscape. Successfully balancing the productivity of the land with
proper conservation practices makes a farm a good economic development
element within a working landscape. It's a tricky balancing act.

Different
Opinions
Some people feel that sacrificing land, plants, and animals is okay
in order for people to make money on businesses and residential
development. Others would rather ban economic development within
fragile ecosystems. Still others think that both can co-exist peacefully,
but this peaceful co-existence takes constant hard work.

Economic
development within a successful working landscape relies on sustainable
development. Sustainable development requires that people don't
just act in their own best interests. Money needs to be made from
the landscape while the landscape gets the care it needs to thrive.

As we look into the
future of economic development within working landscapes, we need
to strike that delicate balance between what we need and what our
ecosystems need. We need to make decisions on which is more important
and if they can both co-exist.

What
do you think?
In what ways can economic development and a working landscape co-exist?

Paper:
A Natural ResourcePaper
is perhaps the most familiar product developed from natural resources.
More

Who
is Doing Business on a Working Landscape?All
businesses use land. Explore how they use it and what they use it
for.
More

A
Media Mogul and Working Landscape ArchitectTed
Turner is the largest private landowner in the United States. This
media billionaire (owner of TBS, CNN, TNT, the Cartoon Network)
owns nearly two million acres of ranchland in Florida, Kansas, Montana,
Nebraska, New Mexico, South Carolina, and South Dakota. More

IPTV Market
to Market LinksBenefit
found in small scale wind projects
wind researchers have often called the upper Midwest the Saudi Arabia
of wind power. If the wind potential for the entire region were
completely utilized, it is estimated the energy produced would supply
more power than the entire united states could use.

Co-op
without chemicalsWalk
down any grocery aisle of snack chips and the implied "healthier"
options can be overwhelming. There is "low fat"
"fat free" "no salt" "fat
free and less sodium" and "reduced fat."

Expanding
Organic Industry
Concern over food quality is spurring growth in the development
of organic products and an increase in the number of retail outlets
selling organic foods.

Generating
Profit From Less Acres
While conventional agriculture seems to be expanding acreage to
make ends meet, some savvy marketers are making money growing less
traditional crops on a fraction of the land used by an average farm.

Large
scale hog production controversy lingers
Today, as one of the nations most prolific pork producers,
and despite a series of legal challenges, premium standard farms
remains a prime example of the influence that a large, well-financed
corporation can wield in rural America.

Water
Issues Trouble Rural America
Grain processors are concerned the Mississippi would become the
major grain transportation route causing the price of shipping to
rise as much as 40%. Farmers are worried the river would return
to its destructive flood- prone ways.

Riverkeepers
Target Big Pork
In recent days hefty fines have been levied on pork operations found
guilty of violating environmental regulations. Most of the fines
were attributable to the improper handling and disposal of manure.